Photos of dog who died used in online scam

Tuesday, May 1, 2018
Photos of corgi who passed stolen, dog put up for sale in online scam
A movement is underway to stop what a watchdog group calls internet schemes targeting dog lovers everywhere. 7 On Your Side's Michael Finney looks at what's being done to try to shut them down.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A movement is underway to stop what a watchdog group calls internet schemes targeting dog lovers everywhere. 7 On Your Side's Michael Finney looks at what's being done to try to shut them down.

In part 1, I introduced you to two families who lost thousands of dollars trying to buy pets they never received.

Now meet the grieving pet owners who found their dog offered for sale on suspicious websites -- even though their dog is dead.

RELATED: Bay Area families buy puppies online, get scammed

"Would you love a cookie?" Wendy Hicks enjoys her corgis.

So does Judy Neuhaus. She's been training them as show dogs for 20 years. She fondly remembers one of her favorites

"Abby is the most special dog in the world," Judy said.

When Abby retired, Judy's good friend Wendy adopted her. It didn't take long for Abby to become Wendy's favorite. But Abby developed cancer and had to euthanized about a year later.

"Sorry," Judy said as she buried her head in her hands and began crying. "Anyway, losing Abby was horrible."

Last month she was stunned to see Abby being marketed for sale on corgipreciouspuppies.com. She believes the pictures were taken off her Facebook page.

"It's degrading to show my beautiful dog pregnant on a hill for somebody to scam people out of money," said Judy.

Wendy was so angry she contacted corgi precious puppies asking to buy the dog she knew wasn't even alive. "They were more than willing to take my - they said $800 for her," she said.

PetScams.com has been tracking this kind of scheme for different dog websites around the world.

We talked to the site's administrator via Skype from Amsterdam, Paul Brady, who says he gets complaints from people who says they've lost money trying to buy all kinds of breeds from different online sites. "Today I have found another 10 websites identical in action, looking completely different," said Brady.

HELP WITH SCAMS: Petscams.com helps consumers suss out scamming websites

Pet Scams forwards any abuse reports it receives about a pet website to the company that registered the domain name.

Corgi Precious Puppies has since been shut down by the registrar. But Wendy found a website with a similar layout and photos under a different domain, elegant corgi puppies.

"It's like whack-a-mole. You get them taken down here and they're going to pop up somewhere else," said Wendy.

The website is using the same two pictures of Abby.

"This one and this one are Abby. I'm frustrated and angry. I would love to put these people out of business," she said.

7 On Your Side contacted Enom, the company that registered both domain names.

Enom told us when it gets reports of abuse, it investigates and acts on those complaints. "It's technically infeasible to scan every domain that is registered." ElegantCorgiPuppies.com has since been taken down.

Petscams.com gave us contact information for both websites. We reached out, but didn't hear back.

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Produced by Randall Yip